John D. Olson Jr., 1918-2012

Gifted athlete was Big 10 football referee

A gifted athlete who starred on the football field at Wheaton Community High School and Western Illinois University, John D. Olson shifted his focus as an adult to officiating.

Mr. Olson refereed high school basketball and football games before moving up to officiate football games for small colleges. He later became an official for Big Ten football games, and he served as a line judge in several Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl games in the 1960s and 1970s.

Mr. Olson also developed a camaraderie with other Big Ten field officials and coaches, building lifelong friendships.

"He always had great stories about legendary Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes and University of Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler and any of the other wild men back then who would just berate him on the sidelines," said Mr. Olson's son, Jeff.

After retiring as a field official, Mr. Olson worked well into his 70s at college football games for ABC Sports, calling TV timeouts and relaying referees' calls to ABC broadcasters.

Mr. Olson, 94, died at his Glen Ellyn home Monday, Nov. 12, of a heart attack, said his daughter, Leslie Ryan.

Born in his parents' home in Wheaton, Mr. Olson was the son of a Chicago, Aurora & Elgin railroad engineer who had immigrated to the U.S. from Norway at age 14. Mr. Olson starred at quarterback and played basketball and ran track at Wheaton Community High School, from which he graduated in 1936.

After high school, Mr. Olson worked for the Ball Horticultural Company, playing basketball for the company's team. A recruiter for Western Illinois University spotted him playing basketball and offered him a four-year basketball scholarship. He enrolled but ultimately stood out most in football, becoming a four-year letterman.

The Philadelphia Eagles drafted Mr. Olson, but World War II cut short any possible pro football career, his son said. He left college in 1941 to fly for the Army Air Forces.

Mr. Olson married his wife of 68 years, Joy Tweedie, in 1941.

After the war, Mr. Olson returned to Wheaton. His wife nixed his plan to fly for an airline, so he went to work in sales for retail and wholesale supplier Butler Brothers in Chicago. From there, he moved into sales and sales engineering for several ball-bearing and friction-material manufacturers, his son said.

Mr. Olson's first passion remained sports, however.

"The Big Ten was obviously the premier conference back then, and that was where he wanted to be," his son said.

Mr. Olson's acumen making calls earned him several plums. He was chosen to work on the field during four college football bowl games in a time when there were very few bowl games. Among these were the 1967 Rose Bowl, which featured Purdue University and its star quarterback, Bob Griese, against the University of Southern California; and the 1971 Cotton Bowl, where Notre Dame upset the undefeated and top-ranked University of Texas. He also officiated the 1972 Rose Bowl and the 1975 Cotton Bowl.

"We all played football," Olson told the Tribune's Bill Jauss in 1974, referring to himself and his fellow officials. "This way we can stay in the game as a participant. The excitement — my God!"

Mr. Olson also was a field judge in the Chicago College All-Star Game, a preseason football game that each summer matched the previous season's NFL champions against a group of star college seniors.

He hung up his officiating whistle for the Big Ten in 1976.

Mr. Olson retired from his sales career in the mid-1980s, his son said. He later worked for a time as a business consultant, his son said.

In 1994, Mr. Olson and his wife moved from Wheaton to rural Goshen, Ind., to be near their son. Mr. Olson remained active, giving tours at the nearby Starcraft RV and camper manufacturing plant.

"When people wanted to see their vehicles being made, he'd take them through the plant," his son said. "They called him 'Mr. Starcraft.'"

An avid racquetball player, Mr. Olson remained physically active until his death, his son said.

After his wife's death in 2009, Mr. Olson moved to the Meadows of Glen Ellyn retirement community to be near his daughter.

Mr. Olson also is survived by nine grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.